May 28th, 2013, 11:36 PM
Likely every home today has a microwave oven, agreed? How many folks do you suppose actually use the damn thing to prepare meals? I'm talking, roasting a turkey or other fowl, baking cakes, salisbury steaks, roasts, vegetables; we mean actual food preparation, not re-heating of already-prepared meals.
Do you know of anyone at all?
jocular
There'd be me for starters.
I am one of those people that believes some things cook well in the microwave whereas other things do not.
Microwave cooking requires a bit of technique for some things to come out properly.
But I prefer the flavor released by other methods of cooking.
Wonderful start! Now, have you acquired all the usually, nasally-spoken complaints, like, "But you can't brown in them!"? Just provoking thought, mind you! The absolutely best-tasting turkey I have eaten was prepared entirely in a microwave oven. Usually, my Mother's efforts, year after year, at baking turkeys for our holiday festivities, produced great, edible fowl, but the breast meat was very dry- difficult to swallow without added liquid. This was an expected type of repast. Years later, my wife surprised me by microwaving a fairly large bird in our big, old G. E., and the results were outstanding! White turkey meat deliciously juicy and succulent! Are you on my wavelength? Perhaps others will wonder.........jocularOriginally Posted by adelady
Microwaving ain't for everything, to be sure. But as I remarked about the turkey, if you have labored through eating breast meat conventionally-cooked without ever experiencing the microwaved, you have missed a most savory treat!
Regarding the emboldened: Your beliefs are well-founded, but I wonder just exactly what types of foods microwave-prepared have you encountered? Regarding the "technique" you mention, my wife amazed me with her quickly-learned expertise using microwaves: she worked for a company which sold microwave ovens exclusively, and taught microwave-cooking classes, before which she did not know jack-sh!t about microwaving. For demonstration purposes, she prepared roasts and such, often baking chocolate cakes in short time, these "feats" amazing the potentional oven buyers, though they took absolutely no expert finesse at all! In short, the microwave is no different than any other means of bringing about cooking: it heats stuff up, thereby "cooking" it. Pretty simple. Lacks the convection effects of crisping and browning, yes, but in the final consideration, these are of minimal concern, compared to other results obtained. jocular
I'm sorry...
If ever I put a turkey in the oven, I ensure it doesn't come out dry.
I lack the knowledge to really make full use of a microwave. But like the turkey example above, mine don't come out dry.
Browning is possible- I do not have a clue how. But buy a Marie Calenders frozen pot pie and follow the directions. It's in a foil-like lined tray and next thing you know- browned crust.
The tray is on the bottom.
The top crust browns- crispy and flaky. How does that work?
Maybe I am just a luddite. Datburned newfangled devices.
I'm for seconds. My usual dinner comprises a meal cooked entirely by microwave. It's a simple dish of steamed broccoli, egg flavored tofu, and shiitake mushrooms. With Chinese oyster sauce of course.
I nuke a mean T.V. dinner, I tell you what.
There are models available that do all sorts of things as well as brown. Here's just one example , there are others so do look around before you choose.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...-aTL4UxaH0pVFQ
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...aKo_y0-w1ZMgdA
I would be interested to know how (other) many people don't have one; they do seem to be nearly ubiquitous. Maybe I should set up a poll...
Are you sure you are not confusing this with the "microwave poo" thread ...
I have one but use it to heat up leftover food primarily but sometimes do use it for microwaveable types of food.
Our best friends don't have one. They're into a lot of woo-ey health stuff.I would be interested to know how (other) many people don't have one; they do seem to be nearly ubiquitous. Maybe I should set up a poll...
Sooooo, microwaves transform food in the "wrong" way apparently. We don't argue. They both have life-threatening illnesses and they've done a really good job, not just keeping themselves from death's door but maintaining a pretty good life, with their combination of medical help and "healthy lifestyle" approaches.
(The only thing we ever contest is their anti-vaccination arguments. They have small grandchildren so that's very important.)
And to think, exquisite restaurants will soon be fixing their turkeys in a microwave.
Besides reheating, we use it for baked potatoes, vegetables (in a steamer bag), bacon, and sometimes eggs.
We sell a Cake-In-A-Mug Mix for the microwave that sells pretty well. Never tried it myself.
Here's an on-line recipe for the same that has some good reviews.
5-minute Chocolate Cake
I make an excellent Chocolate pudding using Almond milk in the microwave. No sticking, stir only at intervals and easy clean-up.
For me the drawback in microwave cooking is more that you can only cook one thing at a time, meaning it will get cold waiting for the other things to get done. Also unless you buy a monster power sucking beast, you can't really get much into one. And for some things, the joy of cooking them is the time it takes them to cook allowing the entire house to be filled with the smell , for instance cakes, pies, cookies, and roast goose.
I get hungry but rarely find food appetising anymore. I could almost be as satisfied having a vitamin that gives me total nutrition and expands in my stomach to provide the full feeling, in place of actually eating. But that is because I had oral surgery to remove all my teeth a few years back and now NOTHING tastes like it used to. With or without dentures, eating is nothing more than a laborious chore to me now that I would gladly avoid if it were only possible to survive without doing it. As often as I can be bothered to deal with a blender I will often make myself a liquid meal in the form of a protein shake or yogurt smoothy rather than chocking myself on flavorless food. But I can't usually be bothered to do that either, so I just drink soda, which was the sole reason for needing my teeth removed in the first place. Gotta love how effectively carbonated drinks will dissolved the enamel right off of teeth.
Sorry to hear about your dental problems and I'm glad you can still eat things to keep yourself alive. If you lived 100 years ago you might not have survived having your teeth pulled due to vary few good dentists around and not much in the way of making false teeth.Gotta love how effectively carbonated drinks will dissolved the enamel right off of teeth.
I've also drank colas my entire life but do not have the problems you have had. I've been told it is in the genes that problems with bad teeth can start, not just the food or drink we consume, although those things do cause problems as well I'm certain. Do you know if your relatives from your past had bad dental problems? That tends to be more problematic than beverages from what I've learned.
The price of the microwave oven is so cheap today that you can afford to buy two or three of them to use if needed when preparing different food items so that they all can be done at the same time.
They are certainly not as expensive to acquire as when they first came out. The first one that I saw while working in a retail appliance store was a Panasonic that sold for $1,200.00. It came out the same Christmas as Beta, which also sold for $1,200.00.
One still would need counter space and as most women lament, there is seldom enough counter space in most kitchens.
One still would need counter space and as most women lament, there is seldom enough counter space in most kitchens.
I understand but there are ways to work around problems. One way is to stack one on top of another leaving enough space between them to insure that heat can escape properly when turned on. That would give you two out of three then the third one you could place it somewhere out of the way like in a closet or pantry until you need it then bring it out and set it on the counter somewhere. There's a way to do most things if you just take the time to figure it out. They also have up and down ovens where the top is for microwave and bottom for conventional. That will then let you place another microwave oven on a counter somewhere.
The thing is to do is to try and make things that would only require two microwaves instead of three.
My off topic woe is me* response to cosmictraveler.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Is it true that vitamins are vaporized by microwaves? or is that just a myth created by people who think scientific progress is the work of the devil?
*a self-criticism applying to my own bitching and moaning about my personal issues-not cosmictraveler.
You also have to worry about having enough outlets to plug them all into. And running them all at once can cause your power on that circuit to overload and trip the breakers. Few kitchens are wired to compensate multiple microwaves running simultaneously. My microwave is such a power hog, but it cooks much faster than most i have had and it doubles as a conventional toaster oven if needed. But we have to make sure there are no extra appliances, other than the fridge being used when we run it or the power in the kitchen goes out.They are certainly not as expensive to acquire as when they first came out. The first one that I saw while working in a retail appliance store was a Panasonic that sold for $1,200.00. It came out the same Christmas as Beta, which also sold for $1,200.00.
One still would need counter space and as most women lament, there is seldom enough counter space in most kitchens.
How true, but seeing that I am an electrician I know that you can upgrade your home wiring to make each microwave oven on separate circuits. Of course your home needs to have enough power coming into it and a breaker box that can handle the upgrades or else you'll need a new entire electrical panel to insure that you'll have adequate power supply. That can be expensive so I'd rather just try to find other circuits and use a extension cord instead.Few kitchens are wired to compensate multiple microwaves running simultaneously.
LOL! No, I've not yet heard that yet. I don't think that microwaves destroy vitamins at all.Is it true that vitamins are vaporized by microwaves? or is that just a myth created by people who think scientific progress is the work of the devil?
Seagyspsy raises a valid point with the wiring. Older homes and apartments were not built with the expectations of the many modern appliances we have, many of which really torque the power. In the office where I work, you can have the coffee maker or the microwave or the portable heater plugged in. More than one of those and the breaker goes. Then again, it is quite a 'historical' building.
Many vitamins are degraded by heat. I have not come across any reference that suggests microwave heating is any better or worse although the fact that many foods are heated for a shorter time in the microwave could conceivably leave them in better shape.
As I recall, it is exposure to water that leeches out the nutrients, so the greater the amount of cooking water and time, the more nutrient loss. Microwaves are great for steaming veggies, using very little water.
I am still of two minds where microwaves are concerned and ours actually gets used very little, mostly to cook veggies on occasion and my pudding is quite a rare treat.
Last edited by scheherazade; May 29th, 2013 at 09:34 PM.
According to this chart many vitamins are not lost due to heat, then again there are a few that are.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...x9tEHuPcBM-pzQ
I would be remiss if I did not play the devil's advocate and point out that there is yet plenty of concern surrounding this everyday appliance.
Health Effects of Microwave Radiation (Western View)5. The effects of radiation are cumulative, in both senses. The meters add to the cumulative radiation as sources proliferate, and microwave radiation is cumulative in sense of increasing the body’s sensitivity over time. Research shows that test subjects don’t always recover completely and that subsequent exposures can cause effects at lower levels.
6. There are no longer any control groups, because we are now exposed to so much radiation. Alasdair Phillips points out the problem in an email to the Roy Beavers list (archived on the Library page at www.wave-guide.org),
Recently an American epidemiologist, Dr Sam Milham, re-analysed Doll’s own data presented in his 1956 (Doll & Hill) paper which showed that heavy smokers were 23.7 times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. However when you compare the figures for heavy smokers vs light and moderate ones the ORs [odds ratios] fall to 3.5 and 1.9. When you compare light smokers with moderate ones you get an OR of only 1.8.
Applying this concept to microwaves, there are no unexposed and few highly exposed subjects. So experimental results showing harm compared to a control group can be deceptively low — like comparing lung cancer in heavy smokers to light or moderate smokers rather than nonsmokers. This allows the industry to downplay the implications of health effects.
7. Even in full studies, sometimes the abstract and/or conclusion may not accurately reflect the study’s data, especially if the industry was involved or the researcher is concerned about funding.
Yup, even now. The electrician laughed when I told him how many power outlets I wanted in our remodelled kitchen. It's small by the palatial standards common in modern Australian homes, but I figured that I didn't want to be limited in where to put the slow cooker, mixer, processor, frypan, breadmaker if I wanted to use them while one or more was still in use, when a couple of points are permanently commandeered by the microwave and the kettle in the first place. (And there are always those small items that might be recharging at any given time.)You also have to worry about having enough outlets to plug them all into.
I don't have a microwave. How hard is it to stick a piece of meat in the oven or in the grill/broiler, set the temperature dial and wait (you can do something else while waiting) or put some olive oil and some veggies in a wok, turn on the hob and stir a few times? Maybe if it took people more than 5 minutes to prepare their food, fewer of them would be obese.
It takes 3 friggin minutes to scramble an egg. If you can't handle that, you have serious time management problems.
Someone once told me that in a restaurant he'd worked in, they froze meat at different levels of doneness so, for example, there were already-prepared rared, medium and well done steaks that just had to be thawed.
Imagine someone asking for a rare steak and the waiter saying, "We're all out of rare, but we have some mediums left."
Last edited by Alec Bing; May 30th, 2013 at 06:25 AM.
When I remodeled my kitchen I had 10 separate circuits and 10 combination circuits for 20 in all. Then the lights were on a separate circuit too.
While you are correct in pointing this out remember that you aren't always going to be standing in front of this device while it is operation and perhaps even be in another room while waiting for it to finish cooking. I'd think that just remembering to stand away from the microwave while it is operating at least 5 feet would be prudent if possible. Also to remember that this device works very fast many times so the amount of problems it creates isn't as bad as you'd think if you are just careful.I would be remiss if I did not play the devil's advocate and point out that there is yet plenty of concern surrounding this everyday appliance.
And there's another issue - remember I've just been looking at all this stuff. We were looking at ovens and remembering the restaurant sized monster we'd had at our previous home, and the kitchen adviser person pointed out something important. You're far better off with two conventional sized ovens than with one super large one. You'll much more often find yourself juggling the need for different temperatures for different items than looking to roast two turkeys at once or six trays of cookies at once.
We thought it easier to rely on one oven with the microwave and other appliances for normal "juggling", and the outdoor BBQ and Weber as back up for those bigger occasions.
I certainly do not stand anywhere near 'the beast' on those occasions that I use it. The information at the link I posted, in section 1 of it, mentions specifically that the baffling fact demonstrated about microwave exposure is the data that shows smaller doses at cyclic intervals do proportionately more damage than greater exposure.
(The bold font was in the article.)Firstenberg points out (p. 41) that “calcium ion efflux from brain tissue is extremely sensitive to irradiation with radiofrequency waves.” He cites four studies and a literature review. In particular, a 1986 study by Dutta et al. at 915 MHz and various exposure levels showed that “The effect at 0.0007 mW/g SAR [specific absorption rate] was quadruple the effect at 2.0 mW/g, in other words 3000 times the intensity had 4 times less of an effect under these particular conditions.” Looking at it the other way, an intensity three thousand times lower had an effect four times greater.
http://www.goodhealthinfo.net/radiat...fx_western.htm
Here's a point no one has mentioned: Sharp evidently pushed turntables in microwave ovens, years ago, since theirs had used one from the beginning, and led everybody to think a turntable was an absolute necessity in microwave ovens. So, most of the others got on the bandwagon, since people would not buy one without the carousal, despite company allegiance to G.E., Quasar, etc.
Truth is, the turntable gimmick had a very significant drawback: "squarish" objects (like turkeys!), unless their size was within the confine of the turntable diameter, would "hit" the sides of the oven, and thus jam the turning motion.
The "fix" eliminating the turntable was in the field-jargon called a "stirring fan". It was placed in the waveguide outlet on the roof of the interior, and interrupted the microwaves which dispersed them most evenly throughout the oven cavity. Our old G.E., made in 1976, had one, and turned out many fine-tasting turkeys for us until we sold it last year, still operating perfectly, 35+ years of service! Who says electronics products do not last? jocular
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